A Quick Visit

On Thursday our friend Jason arrived from Alabama with his girlfriend Lindsay. They were coming up to IL/IN for a wedding and decided to stay at our place for a couple of nights. It was good to see them as it has been over a year now since we've seen Jason, and his girlfriend was super friendly, easy to talk to and a guitar hero master! Seriously, we did other things besides play guitar hero - but the only time we thought about taking any pictures was at 2am while playing....Not being use to staying up so late we were really dragging on Fri and Sat mornings but it was well worth it - time well spent with good friends.

Den, Jason, and Lindsay

Dennis and Jason playing each other's whammies - Now there's something I never thought I would type...haha

getting serious about playing...

And the girls play....Had it not been 2am, I may have been standing up playing instead of sitting cross-legged on the couch....nevertheless, we still beat the boys (thanks to my teammate!)

What goes around, comes around

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer.

One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer.

At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked. 'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.

'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time?

Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill ..

His son's name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

3900 Saturdays

I received this email recently and thought I would share it.

3900 Saturdays

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way,

I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.' I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital' he continued. 'Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.' And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles.'

'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.'

'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail', he went on, 'and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.'

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.'

'There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.'

'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.'

'It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. 'C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast.' 'What brought this on' she asked with a smile.' 'Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.'

When the lights go down in the city....

The sun has been setting earlier every day...before we know it, autumn will be here. In the meantime, we are enjoying as much of the sunny days as we can and taking in the sunsets from our back yard.

Is that a "Wheel in the sky"?

Gretchen takes a dip!

On Tuesday my friend Jen came over with her beautiful daughter Gretchen. We decided to see how she liked the pool....

hmmmm...this wet stuff kind of feels like the stuff in the bath tub!

I wonder if this is a really big bathtub?
It's nice but I don't like those bright lights shining in my eyes!

I'm not sure if I like this...let me think about it...

Time to get back to dry land! Let's go!

Profile Picture

I wanted to change my profile picture, but in order to do that, the picture you want to use needs to be posted somewhere online already. So, I am going to post this picture of me. In case you are wondering why I posted a picture of myself, that is why.

*update* As I went to post my new profile picture, I noticed the blogger has added a new feature. You are now able to upload a profile picture from your desktop rather than just from the web. I suppose this post was therefore then unneccessary...but since I already went to the trouble anyway, I might as well leave it up...

I'm a pharmacist too

Besides my full time recruiting gig and my once a month duties for Nicor (see blog post below), I have been dispencing medication regularly at home. Since BamBam had his surgery followed up by an infection, we have been medicating him twice a day will all sorts of remedies (prescribed by the vet of course!) Here's a picture of what I am working with at this point.Just a couple more weeks to go until we are all done with this stuff!

But how could you resist this face? He is definitely worth it!

Working from home has its advantages

Yes - working from home can have its adventages. Here's a great setup with my laptop, phones, and files out on my deck on a bright sunny day. No - I don't do this all the time. This was actually just a little setup I had going to take care of some weekend work, but I guess I could if I really wanted to. On the other hand, I enjoy being in my office at home where I can work and concentrate on exactly what I need to do.

Working from home is not for everyone - there are people who fall into the traps of sleeping in late, running errands all day, watching TV, and doing anything else they can manage to distract themselves with. For me, it has been a good thing though and luckily I am not easily distracted by such things. Knowing that we have bills to pay and that I am only paid when I actually make something happen seems to be enough motivation to keep me going.

On occassion I miss my office job. For 3 years I worked at The Myers Group (aka Hell) and went into the office everyday. I loved what I did and I loved my co-workers, but that was where it stopped. I worked for a tyrant who belittled women and took advantage of young women. The commute was awful and the inter-office distractions were incredible. I was always being asked to prepare information for meetings, to train some newcomer who wouldn't end up lasting more than a week anyway, and to sit in meetings listening to complete BS that resulted in absolutely nothing. The next year and 8 months I spent at Canton-Street / Wilson-Gray. Here I did get to work from home and realized that I was much more productive than the employees who were actually in the office. It helped me to realize that I would be OK when I went off on my own. I do actually get work done on a daily basis and with no overhead and no greedy business owners to report to, I am able to make more money than I had in the past.

If you are ever given the option to work from home, you should consider it. Make sure that you are disciplined enough to be productive and not to waste your time. Think of the time and money you will save in commuting costs, eating lunches out, dressing in formal business attire and the hours it takes to commute. You can even get a break on your car insurance expense and your accountant can show you how to save some money when you allocate office space in your personal home. Some people need to be micromanaged - however most people do not. For those who do not, working from home can be a great way to increase your productivity and decrease your stress level.

Working for Nicor

I have decided to take on a new part time job. Once a month I am going out to our gas meter, calling up Nicor and reporting the numbers. Why am I doing this? Well, I am not getting paid and we are not getting a discount on our gas bill. However, the Nicor employees can't seem to be relied upon for actually reading out meter and someone has to do it. I guess that someone is me.

For the past 3 months (June, July and August) our gas bill has been record-breakingly low. Sure it seems thrilling to receive a bill for only $35. It makes those $550 gas bills from the winter seem like a distant memory. However, after 3 months in a row, I started to wonder. Surely we were using SOME gas. I mean, I do cook dinner most nights - we do actually shower with hot water. And in fact, we have a gas powered pool heater. When the 3rd cheap bill arrived in August, I decided to call.

The customer service rep asked me to go outside and read the meter to her. Sure enough, Nicor had been estimating my gas usage instead of actually reading it. I am not sure what data they were using to estimate it with though. When I read the numbers to her, it turned out that our bill was really $363 - not $35. They were off by 1,000% basically. How nice.

If they would have just done their job correctly and read our meter, we would have had a bill for $110 each month. Instead we paid only $35 a month for June and July and now have to make up $363 for August. Why can't people just do their jobs? really?

Mini Road Trip

I know I have not been good about blogging this month. I know that my last post says it's 8-8-08 when really it is 8-22-08! So, here I am, ready to update the blog this fine Friday afternoon.

Last weekend was great! It was one of the first weekends that we didn't have a million things to do or obligations to attend. Dennis wasn't on call and I spent the earlier part of the week catching up on housework, laundry, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. While we spent Saturday (8-16-08) laying around, watching movies and swimming, we were a little more adventurous on Sunday.

Sunday morning, we decided to ride our motorcycles to Watseka, IL for breakfast. Watseka is a little town about an hour south of us straight down route 1. When we arrived at our destination, we enjoyed a nice breakfast and then talked about where to go next. I was considering taking Dennis to an ice cream place in Piper City, IL which is another small town about 30 minutes west of Watseka. I am familiar with all of these small towns from when I use to sell supplemental insurance policies. My territory included Will, Kankakee, Ford, Iroquois, and Champaign counties. It was a big area and I have been to just about every town in those counties.

With my iPhone in hand, I consulted the GPS to see that we could take route 24 west to get to Piper City. However, I also noticed we were only 60 miles from Rantoul if we took route 45 south and Rantoul was only 15 more miles from Champaign-Urbana. We decided to be adventurous and take route 45 all the way to the U of I campus.

It was a fun ride. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we were able to maintain a nice speed of 60mph except when we entered the main section of each town where we had to slow to 35. We drove through Ashkum, Gilman, Loda, Del Ray, Pontiac, Buckley and many other little towns with populations under 500 people. We stopped only at gas stations but thoroughly enjoyed the passing scenery. There was almost no traffic the entire trip until we hit Rantoul.

Upon arriving at the University of Illinois, we did some riding around the main streets through campus and then I showed Dennis all of the places I use to live. Thanks to my iPhone I was able to take pictures as proof that we were really there! Here are a few pictures from the day.

Illinois Street Residence Hall - My roommate Stephanie and I lived on the 8th floor here.

505 E Clark St. It looks kind of dismal doesn't it?

And here's the view of the back of 505 E Clark St. Just as dismal as the front. I lived in one of the second floor efficiency units here.

807 Oakland Ave - My favorite apartment. I had over 1,000 square feet of space for only $500 a month....those were the days. This apartment included free parking, a community pool, and a fitness center!

We even stopped to have lunch at the Hooters where I use to work. It went well until I left my invisalign braces on the table in a napkin. We turned around to go back for them but they had already thrown them away. Luckily the manager found them for me. It was a bit embarrassing to say the least.


D and his bike


me and my bike - ready to head back home.

In all, we spent the entire day from 10am - 6pm out riding. We got a little sunburned but had a really fun time.

Today is Great!

It's 8/8/08!
Have a GR8 Day!
:)

Be positive like Mr. Bill

"You've got to accentuate the positive,
Eliminate the negative,
Latch on to the affirmative,
Don't mess with Mr. Inbetween.
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum,
Bring gloom down to the minimum,
Have faith, or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene....." - Bing Crosby

Everytime I see this commercial I laugh out loud. It puts me in a good mood and reminds me to always see the bright side of life....enjoy!

I spoke too soon...

I think that the Smith family (aka - us) is singlehandedly paying the salaries of everyone at the Glenwood Vet. BamBam was doing great - he had his stitches out on Monday and things were looking good. Tuesday I was worried when I saw some inflamation on his chest. On Wednesday it was worse. I treated it with ice and his anti-inflamatory and pain medication. By this morning I was really concerned. He had developed a lump the size of a golf ball on his chest with a second lump starting to form right next to it. It was hot to the touch and he was in pain. I called the vet at about 5am and they got us in first thing this morning. When we got there, it was determined that the lump was definitely an infection which had formed around his incision from surgery. While there it exploded. They cleaned him up, gave him some shots and sent us home with 3 prescriptions - 2 antibiotics and 1 painkiller. He will be on these for 3 more weeks with a follow up appointment early next week. Another $156 later, we were headed home.

On a brighter note, the first claim I submitted to our pet insurance was approved and the check is supposedly in the mail. That claim was only for $238. I will be submitting 2 more tomorrow - 1 for $735 and another for $156. We'll see how that goes. If they are approved, I will be writing a raving review and recommending the company to everyone. It takes about a month to process the claims though...so stay tuned....

Weekend in Coldwater, MI

Every year for the past 5 years my in-laws rent several cabins in Coldwater, MI at Blaire's Hideaway. This year was no exception. However, to make this year a little bit different, we decided to bring Rusty with us. He LOVED it. It was a weekend full of the great outdoors, swimming, campfires and relaxing. While most everyone (Mom & Dad Smith, Shelley, Nate, Tony, Greg, Linda, Danny, Diane, Justin, and Blue) stayed for the entire week, we were there just for the weekend. A great time was had by everyone. Here are some pictures of the trip.

Russ loves car rides - even more than that he loves being the only dog to hang out with us. No competing with BamBam or Belfry this weekend.

Here is the GPS on my i-phone!

Welcome to Coldwater!

Rusty goes for a dip in Randall Lake right away with his ball.

A very wet noodle.

Nathan spent literally the entire week fishing. It happened to be Nate's 9th birthday while we were there. As a b-day gift, we stopped at bass pro shop on the way and got him the largest tackle box that they make. He was so excited that he unloaded his 2 smaller tackle boxes right away and filled up the new one. This kid is one excited fisherman!

awwww...Nate's bating a hook for a GIRL!!! Some day this will be great blackmail. hehe...how cute. You wouldn't believe how much I had to zoom my lense in order to capture this on film!

Let the campfire begin. We made smores and sugarsnakes (crescent rolls wrapped around sticks, cooked in the fire, dipped in butter and then dipped in cinnamon and sugar!) - delicious!

Shelley takes Tony and Justin out for a little fishing.

Fatherly love - Greg and his boy Blue - Have you ever seen a dog lounge in a lawn chair like that before? He is definitely looking relaxed.

One of the "islands" in Randall Lake. Here are the kids having fun.

Mom & Dad Smith watching the kids on the lake.

awwww...Den and Russ

By the end of the weekend, everyone was pretty worn out...

The end!

Bam's doing better....

2 weeks ago BamBam had surgery. He had 3 lipomas removed from his chest and he had his teeth and gums cleaned and ended up having a tooth pulled. It was suppose to be a simple procedure but ended up with a few complications. When I went to pick him up, one of the blood vessels in his chest that had been tied off came loose. This resulted in his chest becoming swollen with a layer of blood hanging out underneath his skin. He was in a lot of pain for several days. I babied him with lots of extra attention. We made a special bed for him out of layers of blankets and pillows and had to pack his chest with ice a couple of times a day. After about 10 days he started feeling better and acting like his old self. Yesterday I took him in to have all of his stitches removed. He is just about back to being 100% BamBam and we couldn't be happier.

Before....during recovery.....poor little guy.....

After...all better!!!

Videos?

So I have never posted a video here on blogger, but I thought I might give it a try. Here are a couple of flicks I captured on my digital camera. Since I don't have kids, you are stuck watching my dogs - sorry! Let's see if this works or not.......if it does you can see that I have some smart boys on my hands. hehe :)

John Mayer Concert

A couple of weeks ago we went to the John Mayer concert with our friends Doug and Amy. We had lawn seats and although it rained earlier in the day, a good time was had by all.